Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway's Major Composers

for fans of the broadway musical, steven suskin's books are indispensable. this time around he manages to explore the full bodies of work of some 36 broadway composers, as well as the work of various "lesser" lights. if you are any kind of fan beyond the most basic, there will be few reference books on the subject you will turn to more often. mine is beside my cd player, as i constantly am cross-referencing. if i can have a complaint, its that the book is too short -- but im sure thats the fault of suskin's publisher, who cant be making a fortune on this book as is.btw, highly recommended: suskin's bi-weekly review of new recording....for fans of show music, this is a MUST HAVE.

Anyone interested in Broadway lore must own at least three books, all by Steven Suskin. The first is which covers 1943-1964 and the sequel, which deals with 1965-81. These are compilations of what the major New York music critics had to say about the openings of every important show on or just Off-Broadway plus the author's comments about each. These books are very readable and an invaluable document of American musical history. Now Mr. Suskin has given us an equally valuable reference tool, but this is more to be used than to be read for enjoyment. The third edition of his (Oxford University Press, 2000) is an encyclopedia of facts about the composers of the shows dealt with in the other volumes. The organization is like this. After several introductory pages, we are given facts about the composers of the early years from Jerome Kern to Harold Rome, new composers of the 40s and 50s, and those of the 60s and beyond. Having dealt with what Suskin considers (mostly rightly) to be the major composers, he then devotes the fourth part of the volume to "Notable scores by other composers": "Irene," "Shuffle Along," "Hair," and so on up to "Parade." Then comes a feature or two, which to students of the American musical like myself, are almost worth the price of the book alone. There is a year by year listing of all the major Broadway productions from 1904-1998, a list of all people who collaborated on the shows (George Abbott, Guy Bolton, etc.), an index of song titles, and finally an index of show titles. Talk about user friendly! Turning back to the main section and taking Gershwin as an example, Suskin gives us in chronological order facts about each of the shows from 1916 to a 1951 production that used Gershwin's music. For each, he lists all the published songs, indicates which were dropped by opening night, and gives some general comments about the show itself. Then he ends with an evaluation of Gershwin's Broadway output in general. Concise, accurate (as far as I can see), beautifully organized. A real Grabbit.